8 Cannabis Facts That Defy Traditional Stereotypes – Part 2/2

I wrote the following for the 235th issue of the Weekly Awareness Guide, a written document distributed weekly via email that I offer for $11.11 a month.

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Research suggests cannabis can kill cancer cells

Collective Evolution reports that research conducted by scientists at St. George University of London found that THC and CBD “weakened the ferocity of cancer cells” while making them more susceptible to radiation treatment. The study was published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies in 2014. It details incredible reductions in the more fatal variations of brain cancer when THC and CBD are used along with radiation therapy. (5)

CE reports that Dr. Wai Lu, the study’s lead researcher, wrote in a November 2014 op-ed for the Washington Post that they’ve found cannabinoids can “play a role in treating one of the most aggressive cancers in adults”. The “promising” results, he wrote, could provide a way to break through tumors and ultimately save lives. (5)

If you think it’s strange that mainstream medicine fails to recognize marijuana’s cancer-killing potential, consider that Big Pharma is already aware of it. As we’ll learn, a natural cure would make pharmaceutical companies lose money, which is why they’re focused on synthesizing and selling everything.

Research suggests cannabis can treat depression

This probably varies from person to person, but many find marijuana to be an effective treatment for depression.

International Business Times reports that USC and SUNY Albany published a study on addictive behaviors in 2005. With 4,400 participants, it was the biggest investigation to date on the link between marijuana and depression. (6)

The study found that occasional and even daily marijuana use can bring lower levels of “depressive symptoms” than those experienced by people who’ve never tried the herb, International Business Times reports. It also found that weekly users exhibited a “less depressed mood”, a “more positive effect”, and “fewer somatic complaints than non-users”. (6)

As I mentioned, this, along with marijuana’s effect on seizures and cancer, is the reason…

Pharmaceutical companies are invested in keeping cannabis illegal

If, as the stereotype suggests, marijuana is nothing more than a “slacker’s drug” that keeps you glued to the couch, then why would Big Pharma be so intent on ensuring it remains illegal? The answer is that this plant is not what they want you to think it is.

It’s a miraculous medicinal plant that can grow almost anywhere. Big Pharma does not want people to use it freely.

International Business Times reports that marijuana’s countless medicinal uses, combined with the fact that it can be grown freely, would cause pharmaceutical companies to lose profit if it were legal. Thus, they see it as a threat. (6)

According to Dr. James Hudson, Big Pharma is intent on recreating marijuana’s compounds and selling them in the form of a synthesized pharmaceutical drug. For obvious reasons, they’d rather do this than let the public use the natural version already available. Profit is the prime motivation for any drug company. (6)

Plants can’t be patented. Therefore, International Business Times reports, Big Pharma aims to keep cannabis and hemp illegal while recreating in a synthetic form the “same drug with the same effects”. It’s all about money. (6)

For our final fact, we’ll learn more about the plant’s spiritual benefits.

Cannabis is well-known for expanding consciousness

Cannabis is stereotyped as a useless, mind-numbing drug, but history suggests it can serve as a vehicle for the expansion of consciousness.

SPARC reports that marijuana’s spiritual benefits are considered profound in South Asia. Thus, various religious groups including Buddhists, Naths, Shaivites, and Goddess Worshippers have made it a part of their meditation practice. They use it to enter Samadhi, a state of “profound stillness”. It’s also prominent today among Tantrics in Nepal, India, Sikkim, and Tibet. (2)

The Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, SPARC reports, states that the Buddha subsisted for six years on hemp seeds alone. The Buddhist Tara Tantra and plenty of other spiritual texts list cannabis as important to meditation and similar practices. In the Himalayas and Northern India, cannabis still maintains a “significant” role for Tantric Buddhists in meditative rituals and the facilitation of heightened awareness and “deep meditation”. (2)

SPARC reports that cannabis is closely associated with worship of Shiva and is even considered Shiva’s favorite herb due to its meditative effects. Shaivite Yogis, ascetics, and Shiva worshippers consume it as an aid to their sadhana (spiritual practice). Sadhus, also known as wandering ascetics, often smoke it out of a clay chillum during their sadhana. (2)

Marijuana’s spiritual use is so widespread in India that the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission arrived at this conclusion in their report on the subject:

“It is inevitable that temperaments would be found to whom the quickening spirit of bhang is the spirit of freedom and knowledge. In the ecstasy of bhang the spark of the Eternal in man turns into the light the murkiness of matter.

“…Bhang is the Joy-giver, the Sky-filler, the Heavenly-Guide, the Poor Man’s Heaven, the Soother of Grief…No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of bhang…The supporting power of bhang has brought many a Hindu family safe through the miseries of famine.

“To forbid or even seriously restrict the use of so gracious an herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to large bands of worshipped ascetics, deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace on discomfort, of a cure in sickness, of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attacks of evil influences…” (2)

Despite this, we’re expected to believe it has no value and we should stay away from it. It’s as if the thousands of years it was used mean nothing in the face of a government subservient to powerful pharmaceutical companies.

So, if a useless or dangerous drug comes to mind when you think of cannabis, it might be time to reconsider this viewpoint. If you decide to dive down the rabbit hole of information on marijuana’s medicinal uses, I recommend starting with the history of mankind’s relationship with the plant.

You’ll find that it’s an important part of our history and, as it did in the past, it can help us prosper if we’re open to it. Now that we know it has so many uses, let’s create a new age of acceptance for this amazing plant.

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About the author:

I’m a twenty-something writer & blogger with an interest in spirituality, revolution, music and the transformative creative force known as love. I run Openhearted Rebel, a daily news blog dedicated to igniting a revolution of love by raising social and spiritual awareness.

I also have a personal blog, Wes Annac’s Personal Blog, in which I share writings related to spiritual philosophy, creativity, heart consciousness and revolution (among other topics).

I write from the heart and try to share informative and enlightening reading material with the rest of the conscious community. When I’m not writing or exploring nature, I’m usually making music.